Recent Reviews
The Cagneys
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Something to Sing About (1937)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
A Lion Is In the Streets (1953)
Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)
Never Steal Anything Small (1959)
Shake Hands With the Devil (1959)
Sunday January 05, 2025
Samaritrophia 2025
I've been reading Kurt Vonnegut's 1965 novel “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,” which I think I last read back in 1980 or so, and it's much better than I remember. Yesterday I came across the following. It reminded me of us today:
Samaritrophia, he read, is the suppression of an overactive conscience by the rest of the mind. “You must all take instructions from me!” the conscience shrieks, in effect, to all the other mental processes. The other processes try it for a while, note that the conscience is unappeased, that it continues to shriek, and they note, too, that the outside world has not been even microscopically improved by the unselfish acts the conscience had demanded. They rebel at last. They pitch the tyrannous conscience down an oubliette, weld shut the manhole cover of that dark dungeon. They can hear the conscience no more.
In the sweet silence, the mental processes look about for a new leader, and the leader most prompt to appear whenever the conscience is stilled, Enlightened Self-interest, does appear. Enlightened Self-interest gives them a flag, which they adore on sight. It is essentially the black and white Jolly Roger, with these words written beneath the skull and crossbones, “The hell with you, Jack, I've got mine!”
The conscience is woke people, whom MAGA people throw into a hole while following their new leader, the “Hell with you” guy. One problem with the metaphor is the “enlightened” part. Doesn't fit today. Now we're benighted* self-interest. Enlightened self-interest, at this point, would be a breath of fresh air.
* Yes, I've been using 'benighted' a lot lately. I think it's going to be a theme.